AAPIP is honored and grateful to be among 286 organizations to receive a generous gift from MacKenzie Scott and her partner, Dan Jewett. It comes at a most pivotal moment in this climate of re-awakened anti-Asian violence amidst this nation’s continued journey around racial equity and anti-Blackness. The stakes are high in the trajectory of American democracy, and Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are key stakeholders alongside traditionally other-ized communities.
A week after the Atlanta shootings, AAPIP released a report Seeking to Soar: Foundation Funding for Asian American & Pacific Islander Communities, with its main finding that only 0.2% of foundation has been directed to AAPI communities annually, even when Asian Americans represent the fastest growing racial group with the largest wealth gap between those at the top and bottom.
A few weeks after that, AAPIP released a second report, Invisible Ink: Media Representation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, finding not just that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are nearly invisible when it comes to news media coverage on topics of economic inequality (even when substantial numbers fall below the poverty line), but that data on AAPIs is routinely omitted (we found 37% of the time) from the articles, even when that data is available.
In this context, AAPIP is grateful for this gift not just because it will go a long way in supporting the work to organize philanthropy, but also for helping to shed light on these topics. This gift will help AAPIP set the stage for our 4th decade to advance new philanthropy for an inclusive democracy through cross-racial solidarity in action. AAPIP has been working hard to meet the moment, build community, and evolve philanthropic practices.
We thank MacKenzie and Dan for leading by prime example of trust based philanthropy. For AAPIP, it is a generous down payment for the work ahead and an invitation for the sector to evolve zero-sum approaches toward abundant generosity, centering the work of communities that are historically underrepresented. It is an invitation to invest in humanity in the truest spirit of philanthropy.